Kevin Hoffman, Jocelyn Moore, Kellie Strate, and Camryn Brown recently sat on the main stairwell of Deer Lakes High School and were in a deep conversation about mental health among teenagers.
Their discussion seesawed between a variety of topics, oftentimes on the importance of mental health awareness and how they can make a difference.
“Almost everyone is affected by mental health whether it’s yourself, a family member, or a friend, so we all need to talk about it more to support each other,” Kellie said. “I want to see more people talk about their experiences. I want people to know it is OK to ask for help.”
The group of four students are part of Stand Together, a student-to-student initiative to engage and educate peers about mental health and encourage peers to reach out to an adult they trust when they are concerned about their own or someone else’s behavioral health.
The students also hope to increase social inclusion, promote individual empowerment, and to take action against stigmas related to mental health and substance abuse disorders.
“There may be some people who have not gone through a mental health experience yet and may write it off as being stressed or sad and would think someone else could walk it off and be fine,” Jocelyn said. “I want people who are going through something to feel OK to talk about it and for others who aren’t to understand the very real extent of it so that it’s not a made-fun-of topic.”
There are 11 students in Stand Together, and students are excited to expand the group next school year.
In addition to the aforementioned students, Kathryn Strang, Anna Bokulich, Keeghan Cook, Lydia Guthrie, Reagan Stankowski, Dominic Tristani, and Elise Shaeffer are also in Stand Together.
Students in Stand Together underwent two days of training.
In Day One of the training, students learned about mental and substance use disorders and the impact of stigma on youth with these disorders through interactive videos and exercises.
The content of Day Two of training varies year-to-year based on the level of participation selected by advisors and students. For schools selecting levels one or two, students are given a list of pre-defined projects supplied by the Stand Together staff and will be given a set budget to implement the project along with a description of the steps involved in developing each project. Level one schools will develop one major project. Level two schools will create two major projects.
Schools that select level three define their own projects to reduce stigma in their school and community, which may take a third day of training to assist students in grant writing and developing a project budget of up to $1,000 to be proposed.
Deer Lakes chose level three each year with assistance from the Allegheny Department of Human Services.
Students in Stand Together held a kick-off event last school year in a school wide assembly which incorporated a Kahoot myth/fact game by grade level and a visual of the 1-4 ratio by having students stand in the audience to indicate the number of people who have mental health/substance use disorders.
Students were able to share what Stand Together is and the purpose of the program. Following the event, students also passed out cards for RESOLVE crisis center with a "lifesaver" attached to each homeroom.
“This is important to me and it’s nice to see there are people who care,” Camryn said. “It’s nice to know we are going to do something, that there’s going to be action, and I hope this is a great way of educating people and empowering people to be more supportive of each other.”
The high school’s second event was a myth/fact wheel held across all three lunch periods over two days. Students were able to spin a wheel to learn facts about mental health and substance use disorders in an effort to dispel myths.
One of the myths about mental health, Kevin said, was that there are some people who are immune to it.
“Sometimes people think that if you have a lot of friends, if you have a lot of Instagram followers, that you must be so happy and nothing bad can be going on,” he said. “But everyone handles things differently and everyone goes through something no matter who you are.”
On May 14th, students in Stand Together hosted another round of the myth/fact wheel during student lunch periods in the high school, along with a photo booth opportunity using celebrity pictures to highlight the 1-4 ratio.
COVID-19 has created challenges in implementation during the 2020-2021 school year, but the group is hopeful for a more consistent in-person meeting schedule in the future. Students have already begun brainstorming podcast opportunities for the fall to encourage student-staff discussions on mental health and available resources. They also recently launched an Instagram account called standtogetherdl2021.
“We want to have these conversations about mental health and mental illness with our friends and also people who we don’t know because we really do want people to stand together,” Kevin said.